Religion in american culture essay

Q: How much do pastors make?
A: On average, an ordained Protestant pastor serving a small congregation received a median salary and housing package of $31,234, according to a study by sociologist Jackson Carroll. But there is a wide disparity in compensation between Protestant pastors serving small congregations and those serving medium and large congregations. For example, a Protestant pastor serving a congregation of more than 1,000 members received a median salary and housing package of $81,923. Considering that the vast majority of churches in the United States are small, the overall compensation package for Protestant pastors is low when compared with teachers and social workers. Roman Catholic priests earned less than Protestant pastors, in part because they have no family to support. Depending on the size of the parish, the median salary for Catholic priests runs between $21,000 and $26,095. Jewish rabbis earn more than Roman Catholic and Protestant pastors combined.
Want to know more? Read chapter 3 in Jackson Carroll’s God’s Potters: Pastoral Leadership and the Shaping of Congregations , (. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2006). The Leadership Network, an innovative large church resourcing organization, does an annual survey of salaries for very large church pastors and staff at http:///Resources_ You might also want to read our Quick Question – Are you paying your pastor enough? http:///research/quick_

The I Ching is an ancient Chinese text that is considered to be one of the "Five Classics" of Confucianism. The main body of the work has traditionally been attributed to Wen Wang, a philosopher and father of the founder of the Chou dynasty, in the 12th century . Much of its text, images, and concepts were taken partly from oracles, mythology, history, and poetry of earlier ages. The I Ching consists of eight trigrams, corresponding to the powers of nature. The trigrams are used to interpret the future with the textual help of supplementary definitions, intuitions, and Confucian commentary. Back then and continuing today, people use the I Ching as a spiritual "guidebook" to give them wisdom about events in their lives. The following is one example of a daily I Ching reading.

The complexity takes a particular form: that politics and culture are designed around an interplay of competitive forces, which is, I think, the key to understanding a lot about the United States. The Constitution was based on the assumptions that in any dynamic society there would be contending interest groups, and [that] one could best counteract their influence by systematically playing them off against one another. That was the reasoning behind separation of powers. That was the reasoning behind the federal system. These different parts of the government are supposed to fight with one another. That’s how the Constitution is supposed to work.